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2000 Customs Gold Units
| Issuer | Central Bank of China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1947 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 150 × 66 mm |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A detailed intaglio vignette of the Central Bank of China headquarters building in Shanghai occupies the upper half of the reverse, rendered with fine architectural detail including a prominent clock tower. Below, the numeral 2000 is displayed in large ornate script within a guilloche panel, accompanied by the English legend TWO THOUSAND CUSTOMS GOLD UNITS. Two manuscript signatures of the General Manager and Assistant General Manager appear above their respective titles, with the date 1947 in a lower cartouche and the printer's imprint at the foot. |
| Reverse lettering | The Central Bank of China Promises to Pay the Bearer on Demand at its Office here Two Thousand Customs Gold Units 1947 Chung Hwa Book Co. Ltd. |
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| Comments |
The Customs Gold Unit was introduced in 1930 as a notional accounting currency for tariff payments, pegged to gold and insulated from the chronic depreciation eating at the regular fabi. By 1947, that insulation had long since failed. The CGU notes issued that year were themselves inflationary instruments, printed in denominations that would have been unthinkable a decade earlier — 2,000 units being a case in point.
Chung Hwa Book Co. was one of several Shanghai printers pressed into emergency currency production as the Nationalist government's finances collapsed ahead of the Communist advance. The series was effectively obsolete within a year of issue.